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India’s Chinese app ban seen jolting $1 billion expansion of ByteDance

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By Aditya Kalra and Pei Li

NEW DELHI/HONG KONG (Reuters) – An Indian ban on dozens of Chinese apps following a border clash between the two nations has possibly derailed a $1 billion India expansion plan of China’s ByteDance, while also sparking an uproar from users of its popular TikTok video app.

TikTok was removed from Google and Apple app stores in India after New Delhi said on Monday night it was among the 59 apps which it believed posed a “threat to sovereignty and integrity”.

The government order didn’t name China, or cite the border clashes. App analytics firm Sensor Tower said all the 59 apps named were of Chinese origin, including Tencent’s WeChat and Alibaba’s UC Browser.

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“If this is not rolled back, these companies would be constrained to cut back their operations in India, potentially resulting in a loss of employment,” said a lawyer who advises a Chinese company whose app has been banned in India.

China’s foreign ministry said it was “strongly concerned” about India’s decision, adding that India had a “responsibility to uphold the legitimate legal rights of investors including the Chinese companies.”

The biggest casualty of the move appears to be ByteDance, which has since last year hired several senior executives and laid out plans to invest $1 billion in India. India is TikTok’s top growth market and accounts for 30% of its 2 billion downloads worldwide.

TikTok said in a statement the Indian government had invited the company to respond to the ban and submit clarifications, adding that it complies with all data security and privacy requirements.

It did not comment on the fate of its expansion plan.

‘HOW WILL I LIVE NOW’

Following the ban order, many TikTok users posted videos expressing their displeasure with the ban.

One user @omkarsharma988 posted a video in which he throws utensils to the ground, hits a chair and weeps, with a Hindi song playing “You’ve left me, how will I live now?” The video had been liked 218,000 times, as the app still functions on phones on which it is already downloaded.

When TikTok was banned briefly last year after a state court said the app encouraged pornography, the company told the Supreme Court the ban cost it roughly $15 million a month.

Several Indian lawyers said chances of a success through a legal challenge this time were slim given the government had invoked national security concerns, meaning the Chinese companies can only hope to lobby India to reverse the decision.

“From a legal perspective it (the ban) is sound because grounds like national security are difficult to challenge,” said Santosh Pai of Link Legal, which advises Chinese companies.

The ban has also left Tencent disappointed, which has apps on the market and is also a major investor in Indian startups, two sources aware of the company’s concerns told Reuters. New Delhi in April mandated screening of incoming investments from countries like China, hitting the likes of Tencent.

While its WeChat messaging app is not that popular in India, the company fears the government could impose a ban later on the mobile version of its blockbuster game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, said one of the sources. Tencent declined to comment.

Two games of China-based firms, “Mobile Legends” and “Clash of Kings”, were among those banned on Monday.

Sensor Tower said the 59 banned apps recorded roughly 4.9 billion downloads in India since January 2014.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Pei Li; Additional reporting by Cate Cadell in Beijing and other China bureaus; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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Model doesn't feel safe wearing designer clothes in Canada's biggest city | Canada – Daily Hive

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A model says she feels like a “sitting duck” wearing designer clothes in downtown Toronto amid a general state of unease in the city in response to an uptick in violent crimes.

Hanya Kizemchuk posted a video on Instagram and TikTok where the local model claimed that she sprinted two blocks to her car after a recent modelling shoot in Toronto after being overcome with the sense that her expensive attire read as “a stop sign screaming ‘rob me.’”

In the video, Kizemchuk describes the scene on a cold, rainy night after finishing a shoot, explaining, “I wrapped my head in my Louis Vuitton wrap. I had my Louis Vuitton duffle bag with all my shoes and makeup and whatever I need for that job. I was wearing my Gucci crossover and I was wearing my black leather Burberry coat.”

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“And as I jumped out onto the street, I have to say that I realized for the first time ever in the city of downtown Toronto, I was truly like a sitting duck and that this is no longer okay to be running around like this, that I need to be a little more downplayed so that I don’t attract attention.”

Kizemchuk says she was “a little unnerved” and felt compelled to run “two blocks to my car and continuously check to see if anyone was popping out from somewhere because I was like a stop sign screaming, ‘Rob me.’”

“And that’s how I felt for the first time ever in this beautiful city of Toronto, which I grew up in and don’t recognize anymore.”

A few chimed in, sharing comments siding with Kizemchuk.

Others questioned why she would run away without identifying any specific threats and then make a post online about feeling unsafe.

One user pointed out how this video is another example of wealth inequality and the ever-growing divide between the rich and poor in Toronto.

According to Toronto Police data, major crime indicators have spiked year-to-date in several categories during 2024, including assault (+10.9%) and robbery (+19.7%).

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Forged by friendship, this year's Stampede boots pay tribute to Stoney Nakoda iconography – MSN

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If not for Duane Mark and Lloyd Templeton’s budding friendship, this year’s Calgary Stampede boot design would have never existed.

While the boot was only constructed in recent months, the process began when Templeton, a Calgary-raised artist in his early 20s, approached Mark with a request to use images of the Stoney Nakoda teepee-holder and educator for artwork he was preparing for the Calgary Stampede.

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The two clicked from the get-go. By November, after hours together, Templeton’s piece featuring Mark — dressed in full regalia standing in the foreground of the Calgary Tower among a diverse group of parade participants — was chosen as the 2024 Stampede poster artwork.

On Thursday, Templeton’s art was unveiled as the design for this year’s Stampede boot — now the second product of their friendship that’s been produced for this year’s 10-day rodeo and fair.

“What comes to mind is the growth of a young man named Lloyd,” Mark said, when asked what he sees in this year’s boot design.

The artwork on the exterior reflects key Stoney Nakoda First Nation and Treaty 7 iconography, Templeton said at Thursday’s unveiling. Stitchings of Alberta’s mountain range and the golden eagle flying through a rising sun — two important symbols for the First Nation’s culture — line the outside of the boot.

The boot’s interior has the words Oyadé Gichiyabi, Ahogichopabi Îyûhabith inscribed, which roughly translates in Stoney language to “be empowered to foster peace and respect,” which was selected at Mark’s recommendation.

A recent graduate from the Alberta University of the Arts, Templeton is becoming a household name in Calgary’s arts community at a pace that’s not lost on him.

“Just last year I was making school projects, and a year later, there’s going to be people wearing my art. That’s nuts,” he said.

Working in three dimensions was a new challenge for Templeton. To start, he would tape paper to the back of the boot to get a feel for the shapes he needed to produce. He then drew the designs by pencil, scanned them into his computer and produced it into a special file that allowed it to be etched by laser onto the boots.

“My poster was oil paint, a very traditional process,” he said. “I was kind of making it up on the go to see what worked. I liked the challenge of that.”

Margaret Holloway, the Stampede’s 2024 First Nations Princess who also provided input on the boot design, said she was “breathtaken, speechless” when she first saw the design. Breaking from tradition, this year’s design will be available on five different shades of boot. Alberta Boot normally creates one special boot for each Stampede.

The 22-year-old jingle dancer is the first person from Stoney Nakoda to be named First Nations Princess in more than 20 years.

Holloway’s family teepee at the Elbow River Camp has three large eagles on it, she said.

“Back home, we see the eagles fly and we feel blessed by their presence, and we feel amazed just by their beauty of soaring in the skies. To see that on this year’s Stampede boot was absolutely unbelievable.”

With their latest creation publicly revealed, Templeton and Mark’s friendship will extend far past their artistic collaboration.

“He’s the coolest dude. We have a lot in common — a good sense of humour, listen to the same music and movies. We make a lot of the same jokes,” Templeton said.

Mark said he’s watched the young artist grow and mature in front of his eyes. Over the past year they’ve discussed “deep Indigenous philosophy,” which Templeton has evidently absorbed into his own life, he said.

“We became the best of friends and will continue to be the best of friends,” Mark said.

mscace@postmedia.com

X: @mattscace67

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Huawei's new Kirin 9010 brings minor CPU improvements – GSMArena.com news – GSMArena.com

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Huawei announced the Pura 70 series today, and once again offered no details regarding the chipsets. However, early benchrmarks confirmed they feature a new platform called Kirin 9010, which has an 8-core CPU, identified by apps as 12-core unit due to hyperthreading.

Hyperthreading is nothing new in the chipset industry, as the Taishan cores have been supporting the technology for some time; it has been part of the Kirin 9000s and now is a part of the 9010 as well.

First Geekbench results revealed a minor improvement in raw performance, coming from slightly faster core speeds. The numbers show improvement single digit percentage improvements in both single core and multi core tests.

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Kirin 9000S on Geekbench

Kirin 9010 vs Kirin 9000S on Geekbench

The actual octa-core combination of Kirin 9010 is as follows: one 2.30 GHz Taishan Big, three 2.18 GHz Taishan Mid and four 1.55 GHz Cortex-A510. The GPU remains Maleoon 910 at 750 MHz.

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